Advocates for reforming Florida school voucher system not giving up

Florida Gov. Rick Scott recognizes a visitor in the gallery during his State of the State speech Tuesday, March 4, 2014m on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Scott touted Florida's improving economy in his speech that drew a contrast between the recession years under former Gov. Charlie Crist and the jobs created during his first three years in office. (AP Photo/Phil Sears)

Supporters say the program gives low-income families across the state choices. Opponents say it diverts much-needed money away from public education.

State lawmakers have proposed a sweeping expansion of the state's tax credit scholarship program. The proposal expands the state's so-called voucher program by removing some eligibility requirements, offering partial scholarships to middle-class families and increasing the amount of money available to the existing program.

While the measure already has hit a major bump in the road — on Thursday, the Senate sponsor abruptly pulled his bill from further consideration this legislative session — longtime supporters of the program said they aren't giving up hope.

"Nothing is dead in week three, but it has certainly created significant challenges for the bill," said House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. "I would say that I think quitting on thousands of parents and families and children that are waiting to get an opportunity of choice for their child is a disappointment."

The state's tax credit scholarship program was approved by the state Legislature in 2001 and went into effect during the 2002-03 school year. The goal was to help low-income families who wanted to send their children to private school do just that, said Jon East, vice president for public policy at Step Up for Students, the nonprofit organization which administers the scholarships.

Students who take advantage of the program are "mostly kids of color," East said.

About two-thirds of the nearly 60,000 students enrolled in the program in 2013-14 are black or Hispanic, and East said about half of those kids come from single-family homes.

They also are often low-performing students at the lowest-performing schools, he said.

The program works like this: Children from families whose household income is below 185 percent of poverty level are eligible to apply. That means a family of four no longer would qualify once the family income exceeds $43,568.

More than 90,000 children applied for the current year's program. As of March 12, more than 72,500 children have applied for the 2014-15 school year.

Once a student is accepted to the program, they're given a scholarship for an eligible private school. In 2013-14, the amount each student can receive is $4,880.

East said 1,425 schools, about 80 percent of which have a religious affiliation, accepted the vouchers during the current year.

Twelve schools in Collier County, including the Village School and Royal Palm Academy, participate in the program. Twenty-seven schools in Lee County, including Bishop Verot High School and Knox Academy in Bonita Springs, accept the vouchers.

In Collier County, 311 students have accepted scholarships during the 2013-14 school year. More than twice as many kids use the program in Lee County as in Collier, where 660 students have accepted the scholarships.

Those numbers pale in comparison to enrollment numbers from other districts. In Miami-Dade County, 16,006 students are enrolled in 317 private schools through the tax credit scholarship program; while 2,637 students in Hillsborough County are enrolled in 72 private schools.

"We deal with parents all the time, and fewer than you think say ‘boy public school is awful,'" East said. "More of them are saying, ‘boy this (public school) isn't working out.'"

The voucher program is paid for mostly by donations from corporations that then receive credit against corporate income taxes, insurance premium taxes and similar charges — much of which otherwise go into the state's coffers.

"The whole idea of vouchers flies in the face of improving public schools," said Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the Florida Education Association. "We slashed funding for education, but voucher schools continued to get increases."

Pudlow said the money spent on the program comes from taxpayer dollars and should be spent on public education. Districts have been asked to tighten their belts in recent years, despite the fact the Legislature has passed "mandate after mandate for more tests."

"We ought to be making sure that every neighborhood public school is as good as it can be," Pudlow said. "We as the state ought to be providing to everyone the opportunity to get a high-quality education. If we want to invest in our children, to have the best opportunity they can to survive and thrive, then we have to give them every opportunity. It's not going to be something on the cheap."

While some say the program takes away from public education, East said it could actually enhance it.

"It really does not undermine public education," he said. "There are 1.5 million children in public schools; this is a sliver of the population it might work for. This is not an easy change to make. It's not for all kids."

Joy Jackson, a pastor at the Christian Fellowship Worship Center in Opa-Locka, said she knows firsthand that private schools aren't for everyone.

Jackson told members of a House subcommittee Tuesday that her grandson went to a private charter school, only to learn there was no one there to help him with a "severe speech impediment." Her grandson went back to public school, where Jackson said he was able to get the help he needed.

"I am against expanding the voucher system when the present one is failing," she told the House Choice and Innovation subcommittee last week. "I have a number of parishioners who have tried, only to return back to the public system behind and struggling. I do believe in choice, and all of us want the best in our children, but I believe the best is in a public school education."

While public education advocates herald the decision by Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, to pull his bill from further consideration, the proposal isn't dead yet.

HB 7099, sponsored by Rep. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, passed the House Choice and Innovation subcommittee 9-4 along party lines Tuesday and heads to the House floor.

Diaz said he isn't giving up on the bill.

"There's always a possibility," he said Thursday night. "What that possibility is, I couldn't tell you right now."

While Galvano's bill is dead, that doesn't necessarily mean the voucher issue won't come up again. Senate rules would allow a member to tack an amendment on to another bill with the same language as Galvano's tax credit scholarship bill. If that were to happen, the amendment would need a majority vote to be adopted if the bill was still in a committee.

If an amendment with the same language as Galvano's bill were to be introduced on the Senate floor, it would need unanimous support before it could be adopted, since it was never heard in the Senate.

The Senate can take up a House bill sent over once the House approves it. However if the bill wasn't heard in the Senate it would either need to be referred to a committee for a hearing or introduced by unanimous consent before the Senate can consider it.

"It's continuing to move in the House, so I guess the issue is still in play in that regard," Galvano said. "If at some point the issue comes up again, yes I'm happy to talk about it."